Tumbleweeds & TGY

[Maitre_Tea]

Wow, where have all the Oolongians gone?

Though we may not be as "geeky" as those Pu'er fiends but us oolongians/oolongnites are always ready to defend the goodness of this "middle child" tea that's stuck between a "black" older brother and that "green" sibling.

[wyardley]

Ok, here's my concern though. After browsing through the Jing Tea Shop website for yixing teapots they seem to put Dan Cong as another category for which you can dedicate a yixing to. What do you guys think?
For myself, here's how I break it down in terms of what I dedicate for each teapot: light oolongs, roasted oolongs, dancong, black teas, lapsang souching (the flavor is so strong it deserves its own teapot)

Jing's suggestions are for what types of tea they feel a particular pot is well suited for; I don't think they're presuming to tell you how you should decide what pots to use for which types of teas. And in any event, their suggestions are just their opinion. That's not to say that Seb's opinion might not be a better informed opinion than yours or mine, but it's still just an opinion. There are not really any hard and fast rules.

Dancong is of course a category for which you *can* dedicate a pot for... you can dedicate a pot to anything you want. But it's just another type of oolong, and again, there can be more or less oxidating / roasting, though most dancongs I've had are kind of middle of the road (some roasting, but not usually really high fire, some oxidation).

I have two pots for dancong currently, though I don't break it down any further than that. One is a flat purple-brown yixing shaped like an oil lamp, and the other is a Chaozhou pot, kind of wide, but not as flat.

Anyway, since collecting teapots typically results in one having a lot of teapots of different types, shapes, and sizes, I don't really find the over-specialization of pots to be the worst thing in the world, though of course the pots dedicated to types of tea you don't make often won't get a whole lot of seasoning.

[Trioxin]

Wow guys... that was all confusing as hell. I keep it simple. A pot for darker oolongs, and a pot for lighter oolongs. Nice and easy.

[Vulture]

*wanders in from the flavored teas room*

I have one Yixing dedicated to Great Red Robe and have been reluctant to use it even as a general Wuyi pot

I find that there is at least as much variation from one DHP to another as from one DHP to a Shui Xian or Rou Gui. I wouldn't hesitate to use the same pot for these three or even for the light Wuyi teas, especially if the pot is made of a fairly dense clay.

*blinks*

That's all German to me

I think I need to stay with my flavors and rooibos until I find room for more teapots...

*walk/runs back to flavored teas room*

[Victoria]

*wanders in from the flavored teas room*

I have one Yixing dedicated to Great Red Robe and have been reluctant to use it even as a general Wuyi pot

I find that there is at least as much variation from one DHP to another as from one DHP to a Shui Xian or Rou Gui. I wouldn't hesitate to use the same pot for these three or even for the light Wuyi teas, especially if the pot is made of a fairly dense clay.

*blinks*

That's all German to me

I think I need to stay with my flavors and rooibos until I find room for more teapots...

*walk/runs back to flavored teas room*

We'll be here when you are ready.

[hop_goblin]

Still here! I have acquired a couple of Taiwan oolongs from Houde that I enjoy. One hand harvested and the other is Machine. The Machine Harvest was actually very good for the price. It was actually on par with the other more expensive stuff just leached out much faster than the other.

[ABx]

Rather than worrying about specific rules, I tend to just think of it this way: Yixing pots are pourous and will readily absorb tea stains. When you make tea in it, a certain amount of that stuff will be released into your tea. So the question to ask yourself is whether you would want some of yesterday's tea in your current cup. Obviously you don't want some dark roasted tea in your jade oolong, but it could add interesting dimension to (if not enhance) a similar tea.

It takes a while to really build up so if you're new you can easily keep it more general. As your tastes become more refined, and you find your real favorites, you'll probably get more specific. You might even want to dedicate a pot to your single most favorite type of tea, but if you keep things within general flavor profiles then you should be fine.

Another thing to keep in mind is that right now you might have one or two pots that you treated yourself to and want to treat as special, but the chances are that if you get to the point that you start wanting to get more specific then you'll have plenty of pots to choose from. It's pretty easy to end up with at least a small collection of nice pots when you're really into tea So don't worry too much. As long as you don't use one pot for any and everything, every day for a year, you'll be fine.

[xuancheng]

If I had to dedicate pots to Wuyi oolong, I would buy a pot for Old Shuixian and a pot for other wuyi teas. I find that Laocong Shuixian has a very different flavour. It may be rather pointless to dedicate a pot to DHP as wyardley pointed out, teas sold as DHP are often blended and many people have different ideas about what DHP actually is. Look through Houde's blog for a post about Yao Yueming and his research on original DHP bush.

Also someone mentioned Lapsang Souchong, and dedicating a pot to it. I would agree, the flavour is quite different. It is a wuyi tea, but I was always under the impression that it was a black (or red) tea, not an oolong.

[cheaton]

Thanks for all the input! I think I've determined I'm going to keep my current Yixing a dedicated TKY pot. With so many different TKY's, and being that I plan on trying alot of them it makes sense to me to have this pot dedicated to that. I plan on getting a Gaiwan for taste testing and trying things I'm not ready to put into a Yixing (TKY or other). I'm going to go ahead and buy another Yixing just to have for when I decide on something else with which I want to use a Yixing pot. I haven't really found a "darker" Oolong I like enough yet, but I think the Wuyi varietals will probably strike me. I like alittle "smokey" flavor in things. We'll see what I come home from NYC with at the end of next week . There will be a tea tray in there too. My wife is tired of me making a mess on the kitchen counter!

[Salsero]

I would buy a pot for Old Shuixian and a pot for other wuyi teas.

Excellent point. Good to hear from you again, hope to hear more. Maybe you could stop by the TeaDay forum now and then to share what's in your cup?

[xuancheng]

I would buy a pot for Old Shuixian and a pot for other wuyi teas.

Excellent point. Good to hear from you again, hope to hear more. Maybe you could stop by the TeaDay forum now and then to share what's in your cup?

Thanks for the warm welcome, Salsero! I noticed you also had another nice welcoming message after my other post, but I didn't notice it until yesterday.

I look forward to participating more on Teachat, there is a lot to learn here and hopefully I can share a bit too.

[ABx]

Thanks for all the input! I think I've determined I'm going to keep my current Yixing a dedicated TKY pot. With so many different TKY's, and being that I plan on trying alot of them it makes sense to me to have this pot dedicated to that. I plan on getting a Gaiwan for taste testing and trying things I'm not ready to put into a Yixing (TKY or other). I'm going to go ahead and buy another Yixing just to have for when I decide on something else with which I want to use a Yixing pot. I haven't really found a "darker" Oolong I like enough yet, but I think the Wuyi varietals will probably strike me. I like alittle "smokey" flavor in things. We'll see what I come home from NYC with at the end of next week . There will be a tea tray in there too. My wife is tired of me making a mess on the kitchen counter!

That's how it all starts

Do you find yourself saying: "I can stop anytime I want to"?

[cheaton]

Thanks for all the input! I think I've determined I'm going to keep my current Yixing a dedicated TKY pot. With so many different TKY's, and being that I plan on trying alot of them it makes sense to me to have this pot dedicated to that. I plan on getting a Gaiwan for taste testing and trying things I'm not ready to put into a Yixing (TKY or other). I'm going to go ahead and buy another Yixing just to have for when I decide on something else with which I want to use a Yixing pot. I haven't really found a "darker" Oolong I like enough yet, but I think the Wuyi varietals will probably strike me. I like alittle "smokey" flavor in things. We'll see what I come home from NYC with at the end of next week . There will be a tea tray in there too. My wife is tired of me making a mess on the kitchen counter!

That's how it all starts

Do you find yourself saying: "I can stop anytime I want to"?

But I can stop any......time........I..........oh crap.